Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

LOL SPARTZ SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

LOL SPARTZ SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: bradyisbeast

LOL Spartz Screenshots Of The Day today courtesy of bradyisbeast, with a special tribute to The Love That Dares Not Speak Its Name. (Don’t ask, don’t tell!) Hey Emil — I’m ready…how ’bout you?? Thanks again, Brady! Everyone, click to enlarge!

We’re running an entire Comedy Week of laughs, lulz and ROFLs here on the Pillar Of Awesome.Got a funny screenshot of Epic Fail or overall Halo hilarity? Send it in! We’ll run ’em for the rest of the month or until we run out. Just shoot it over to haloreachdaily@live.com, or make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

LIGHT FARE

You’ll score most of these automatically as part of completing your other Daily Challenges today. For leftovers, just head into ONI Sword Base or an anti-Grunt Custom Firefight game (see links at top of the page for both).

Yep; if you beast with the Hammer, you can actually pocket this in the exact same Grifball match as the Three Dog Fight Challenge (see below). Where you at, G-ball haters? Yeah, thought so. (Grifball love courtesy of HMBRGR.)

Before the rise of Grifball, this used to actually be challenging; now, a couple of well-timed hammer swings will net you a Trip pretty regularly.

If you’re not a fan of the orange dude with the bomb — well, OK, you’re adopted, so that explains it — you’ve still got a number of options that’ll skitch the odds in your favor:

Start with Rumble Pit. More enemies on smaller maps = more Multikills.

Vote for gametypes on small, tight maps that encourage enemies to converge into single flashpoints: King Of The Hill and Oddball, for example. Spam grenades into the hotzone, followed by DMR or Magnum headshots and the occasional coup-de-grace melee rush. Avoid the area yourself, however; no sense adding your corpse to the fiesta.

Big Team Battle and Invasion also offer prime Multikill targets: a warthog with a gunner and passenger, or a pack of enemies in the unlock zone of an Invasion phase, for example. Your main problem will not be enemies, but allies: with so many players on each side, you’ll have considerable competition to actually score the kills.

HOUSE OF PAIN

Complete a Campaign mission on Heroic with Mythic, Tilt, and Thunderstorm on.

Tip Of The Day

OK, three Skulls on, so lets take a quick look. Thunderstorm upgrades all enemies to the next rank. Mythic doubles an enemy’s Health and Shields. And Tilt doubles both an enemy’s weaknesses and resistances. Guess what? Where we’re going, they’ll hardly make a difference.

Decide ahead of time if you intend to do this solo or co-op. If flying solo, your best bet will be to take the Midnight Run on Nightfall. Regular readers of this site know what to do; if you’re new, just check out the permanent link at the top of this page, or watch the video below for a quick run-through of the route. The guy here finishes the level in five minutes, and that’s with ALL Skulls on; but even if Forky doesn’t immediately cooperate, you should still wrap it in under ten.

On co-op, the Challenge becomes even easier, since the New Alexandria level features long stretches of aerial combat unaffected by the Skulls except Mythic, which only means it’ll take a few extra shots to nail the Banshees and Turrets. But, with a Falcon gun, it’s actually pretty hard to miss, and it’s not as if they’re going to Armor Lock.

When you do need to take an Objective on foot (three times total), leave one teammate behind with the Falcons. Most of the time you’ll simply be able to Sprint past enemies to reach the Objective switches; but in any event, the real hardcore combat only occurs once you’ve hit the switch and reinforcements storm your location.

Hey, look at that! If you get killed, you simply respawn back up with the teammate who’s making sure no one steals the Falcon’s hubcaps. Hop back in the choppers, job done.

One special note, however: Make sure to watch the level’s final cutscene all the way through. No, it won’t affect the Challenge; but after putting up with her bad driving all game, you’ll get paid 2500 cR to watch Kat take it through the head. No skipping!

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Grimmreapers13

Grimmreapers13 smiles for the camera for our Screenshot Of The Day this morning. Hi, Mom! And, of course, thanks to Grimm. Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

Halo Reach Daily is dedicated to my Dad, who taught me what it means to take on a Challenge.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: LeGy P L U T O

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of LeGy P L U T O, with an amazingly cool tribute to color and shape. (Yes, we just watched a documentary on Foo Fighters.) Thanks, Pluto! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for plain Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

Halo Reach Daily is dedicated to my Dad, who taught me what it means to take on a Challenge.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: saymyname

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of saymyname, who demonstrates why his name is…well, “Say my name”! Thanks, er, Name! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

GUNSLINGER

We love our cool Grifball pic more than the bomb itself, but we’d be happy to start running some different pix if people want to send ’em in. Snap your coolest Grifball screenshot and send it our way — just follow the directions from our Screenshot Of The Day feature — and we’ll start using them whenever Grifball makes the update (which is pretty damn often).

In the meantime, though:

Have fun with that Hammer, kids.

KILLAGRUNTJARO!

Despite its name, Killagruntjaro doesn’t actually require you to Jaro anything, though we will be going with Gruntpocalypse in Score Attackto do this in one Round rather than three. It shouldn’t be any problem to DMR your way to 10 Multikills, since the Grunts go down with one shot, travel in packs, and maneuver with the agility of highway roadside accident. So, if you can’t manage 10 Multikills out of a single match, you’re just not trying.

Yes, you can also certainly clear this in almost any game of Firefight Arcade — we prefer FRGFight, though smashing the hell out of Covies with Gravity Hammers in a Fistfight gives us a boner too.

JUST A SHOWER

Complete any Campaign mission on Normal or harder with Thunderstorm on.

Okay, try this out tomorrow: When you wake up, go in and do a Midnight Run through Nightfall with some random Skulls switched on — then see if you register a Challenge at the end. My guess? About 50-50, depending on whether you picked the right Skulls.

Anyway, only one Skull on this time, so let’s take a look: Thunderstorm upgrades enemies to the next difficulty class; but, at the end of the day, you’re going to be Sprinting past most of them anyway. Here’s the vid of the speed run through Nightfall, just in case you’re new, and you can always click on the standing link at the top of the page for a more detailed description.

TRIPLE THRILL

This will be your most engaging Challenge today. Sprees — five-in-a-row medals, all without dying — can sometimes be a bit tricky, often depending not just on your own skill but the skill of your opponents or the skill of your teammates, or both.

The good news is that in Reach, Bungie has created a Spree medal for virtually everything. We’re accustomed to the Killing Spree and the occasional Sword or Shotgun Spree; but now there are Wheelman Sprees, Laser Sprees, Assist Sprees, and even Teabag and Rage Quit Sprees. (Though we’re pretty sure the medal for that last one is a Quit-Ban.) Also, there’s probably not a Teabag Spree. Yet.

How and where you get these Sprees depends entirely on your playstyle. If you prefer close-quarters combat, hunt out the Sword on a tight map and slash your way to bonus credits; if you like playing Infection — and *cough cough* who doesn’t? — there are even Sprees for blasting five Zombies or infecting five Humans in a row.

Just a few things to keep in mind:

In Objective games, the counter for Sprees doesn’t carry over from Round to Round. Get four kills in each Round of a 1-Flag game and you won’t score any Sprees even though you went 16-0. Contrast this with Invasion, which has Phases separate and apart from Rounds, and in which the counter does carry over from one to the next.

Some weapons will trigger two Sprees at once; for example, the Sword, Sniper and Hammer, since you’ll earn a Spree with the weapon in addition to your naked killstreak. Though we haven’t had a chance to test this out ourselves, we’re told that these twin-streaks actually earn you two notches toward your Daily Challenge, so you’ll particularly want to keep these in mind; likewise, the extended-streak awards — Killing Frenzy, Slice ‘N’ Dice, and so on — should score you additional notches as well.

If for some reason you’re still having Spree trouble and it’s running late in the day, you’ve got a few more options:

Hop in a Warthog with a friend — preferably one who’s a good gunner — and joyride him around while he blazes metal. You’ll be working toward a Wheelman Spree, with the added possibility of a Splatter Spree as well. Don’t do it, though, if you’ve already notched a few kills in a row: because Reach has nerfed most vehicles into rolling deathtraps, you’re more likely to get blown to bits (by gunfire, Armor Lock, a flying traffic cone) before you land a good splatter or two, and your killstreak will end in its tracks.

Despite this rolling-deathtrap observation, heavy vehicles can still be good for a few essential kills before they’re sent to scrap, especially against other vehicles. Hop in a Wraith or Revenant and play it conservatively, waiting for the other team to make its rush; you’ll score single- or Double-Kills against guys on the ground, Double- or Triple-kills against vehicles, and you can even boost for splatters when the need arises.

Objective games, especially those on smaller maps, can be great for gathering Sprees: enemies usually converge into clustered hot zones, such as with King Of The Hill or Oddball, making it easier to spam grenades and fire into the crowd; and enemies often become so focused on the objective that they stop playing defensively, racing out in the open toward the waypoint, and surprised when you ambush them before they get there. (Don’t go into the Hill, or grab the Oddball yourself: That’s a sure way to get fragged. You’ll be trading some scoring points in the game for the chance to earn a sizable cRedit bonus at the end of the day.)

Avoid Juggernaut games, however; unless you’re the Jugs himself — in which case you’ve got a great chance to Spree. More likely, though, you’ll go through the entire match without a single kill, let alone five.

If you’re really desperate, head into Invasion. There’s actually a Medal called a Spawning Spree, in which you allow a teammate to spawn on you five times without dying. Retarded? Yes, but it’ll notch you toward your Challenge. Just keep yourself away from the “territory” zones but in a tactically useful spot, and your teammates will thank you for it.

Just for reference, here’s the list of Multiplayer Sprees you’ll find among the Halo Reach medals. Most have three levels (5/10/15), though straight kills measure up to 40 (“Unfrigginbelievable!”).

Assists

Driving

Grenade Stick

Hammer

Infection

Juggernaut

Kills

Laser

Shotgun

Sniper

Spawn

Splatter

Sword

Zombie Killing

(Note that Hail To The King, although awarded for five kills within the Hill, does not itself count as a Spree medal, and so won’t register a second point in your Challenge count beyond your standard Spree.)

And from reader DrunkTankGunner:

For “TRIPLE THRILL” I found the easiest way is to play Infection and only use your shotgun for 5 kills in a row. Killing spree, shotgun spree, zombie killing spree, done and done.

The drawback, of course, is that you’ll be playing Infection. But for one game, I suppose we can manage. Thanks, Gunner!

As with most of the LASO Challenges, we have our standard warning: There’s really no other way to say this, but you’re probably never going to do this alone. (If you can handle a Legendary level solo without dying, though, you won’t need any advice from here.) And, while it’s not quite Mythic difficulty — SLASO is solo-only, and includes the Blind Skull — it’s pretty damn close.

So, while it’s true that the game amps up the difficulty for more players in Co-op mode, you’ll want the three more guns at your side; otherwise, it’ll just be a very long day of level Reloads.

OK then. The mission’s much too long for a detailed walkthrough, so instead keep in mind some strategies that help on Legendary difficulty no matter which part of the campaign:

The symbol for the unofficial "Mythic" Difficulty

On Legendary, Reach becomes an almost entirely different game; rather than the run-and-gun, blaze-of-glory style you enjoyed on Normal, Legendary relies much more on strategy than sheer skill. Your kung fu may be strong, but you won’t be able to ninja your way out of a Legendary plasma shitstorm.

Since the Iron Skull will force the entire team back to a Checkpoint after a single player death, you’ll also need to play even more defensively— stealthy when possible, and get-the-fuck-out when necessary. If you think you’ve just done something that would make an awesome kick-ass clip for your File Share, you’re probably not doing this right.

In almost every situation, look to bypass encounters entirely. You’re not working toward a Campaign score, so no need to take out every enemy — or, actually, any enemy — if you can skip them. (After all, Reach will get glassed anyway, yeah?)

To do this, keep an eye out for perimeter runs along the outskirts of hot zones — not only will natural cover help you slip past Covies more easily, but they’ll be shooting only from one or two directions; get caught in a crossfire on Legendary and you might as well go grab a sandwich while your game Restarts.

When you can’t bypass enemies, keep a distance/headshot weapon handy for taking them out at range. Use the level’s geography to find positions that offer clean lines of sight for precision kills before the enemy AI even figures out where you are.

Effectively skipping one encounter can even bypass the encounter that comes after it, since enemy and vehicle drops often coincide with combat progress; you might find a subsequent battleground entirely empty, since the Covies will have only begun their landing sequence while you’re already getting the hell out of Dodge.

If it looks like the designers want you to engage a major battle from an obvious point of attack, DON’T. The obvious attack points are for NORMAL difficulty. You’ll want another way in, or around, taking out an objective from afar or skipping a firefight entirely.

Whew! Quite a lot to keep in mind as you try to do the one of the Campaign’s hardest levels on its most extreme difficulty without dying once. To help you out, here’s a video walkthrough — done SOLO — that’s quite long (90 minutes) but well worth the watch if you get frustrated.

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

Halo Reach Daily is dedicated to my Dad, who taught me what it means to take on a Challenge.

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: RK4N3

Screenshot Of The Day today courtesy of RK4N3, who waves “hi” to his Mom after assassinating an Elite General. Thanks, Arcane! Everyone, click to enlarge!

Meanwhile, if you haven’t done it already, yo: Send your screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly Challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

Halo Reach Daily is dedicated to my Dad, who taught me what it means to take on a Challenge.

NOTE: NEW SPECIAL SCREENSHOT WEEK!

CLASSIC SACK SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY

CLASSIC SACK SCREENSHOT OF THE DAY: Ender Xer0

Wait, didn’t we just run a week of special screenshots like, a couple days ago? Yes, yes, yes…but the new Playlist Update is so epic that we just couldn’t resist. And did you really expect us to pass up a special week named Classic Sack??

So, even if you think that name sounds vaguely pornographic — and especially if you do — head into one of the Classic remake maps or Action Sack gametypes and start snapping some pix!

Send screenshots to haloreachdaily@live.com, or just make a file recommendation to us on XBox (Gamertag: Ender Xer0, with a zero), and we’ll take care of the rest. Remember: we’re not looking for Forge art or random pix from the Internet; it should be a screenshot of YOU!

TRANSMIT INTEL:

Like this:

Check in here for strategies on completing the Daily and Weekly challenges in Halo: Reach. If it’s your first time, click through the About HRD link above; and add comments below if you’ve got a good idea of your own for tackling the Challenges today.

NOTE: NEW WEEKLY CHALLENGE TODAY!

DAILY CHALLENGES

GUNSLINGER

Multiplayer

Kills

Type: KillsSetting: MultiplayerDifficulty: EasyReward: 400

Kill 40 enemies in Multiplayer Matchmaking.

Not much of a Challenge, eh? You’ll holster this just by playing enough — which, for only 40 kills, is hardly at all.

Rumble Pit offers the quickest option: smaller maps — meaning less dead-space between firefights, so the kills come faster — though Multiteam and any of the Slayer playlists will also push through this at a rapid pace. Your biggest challenge will be noticing that you completed it at all, so take yer pick.

Avoid Infection, since it records the lowest kill-count of any playlist, as well as Big Team Battle, where you’ll spend more time just reaching the enemy than registering kills. And, by all means, skip Juggernaut, where you might finish the match without any kills at all.

Pretty simple, right? And yet — still not the easiest Challenge of the day. Yow!

ONE SPARTAN ARMY

Firefight

Kills

Type: KillsSetting: FirefightDifficulty: EasyReward: 1500

Kill 150 enemies in Firefight Matchmaking.

Aother relatively simple Challenge that you can get just by playing enough, though you can save time using the right game mode. Your best bet: two Rounds of Gruntpocalypse in Score Attack, since you can dispatch Grunts quickly and nobody can score them out from under you. Focus on headshots and multikills, since Firefight offers additional cR for medals earned.

HOUSE OF PAIN

Complete a Campaign mission on Heroic with Mythic, Tilt, and Thunderstorm on.

Tip Of The Day

OK, three Skulls on, so lets take a quick look. Thunderstorm upgrades all enemies to the next rank. Mythic doubles an enemy’s Health and Shields. And Tilt doubles both an enemy’s weaknesses and resistances. Guess what? Where we’re going, they’ll hardly make a difference.

Decide ahead of time if you intend to do this solo or co-op. If flying solo, your best bet will be to take the Midnight Run on Nightfall. (Never done the Midnight Run? Oh, you’re gonna like this.)

After assassinating the initial Elite at the opening of the mission, you’ll Sprint your way through almost the entire level, skirting the perimeter of the map, meleeing an occasional Grunt or Jackal as you go with only a small amount of gunfire when you reach the bridge to Powerhouse.

There’s an absolute GEEEnius maneuver with the forklift (yes, the forklift!), and you won’t even encounter the Hunters at all. The extra health, damage resistances and upgrades to enemy rank will hardly figure in, since you’ll spend most of the level along the perimeter, Sprinting at a full clip.

Here’s a video of the complete route — the guy here finishes the level in five minutes, and that’s with ALL Skulls on; but even if Forky doesn’t immediately cooperate, you should still wrap it in under ten.

On co-op, the Challenge becomes even easier, since the New Alexandria level features long stretches of aerial combat unaffected by the Skulls except Mythic, which only means it’ll take a few extra shots to nail the Banshees and Turrets. But, with a Falcon gun, it’s actually pretty hard to miss, and it’s not as if they’re going to Armor Lock.

When you do need to take an Objective on foot (three times total), leave one teammate behind with the Falcons. Most of the time you’ll simply be able to Sprint past enemies to reach the Objective switches; but in any event, the real hardcore combat only occurs once you’ve hit the switch and reinforcements storm your location. Hey, look at that! If you get killed, you simply respawn back up with the teammate who’s making sure no one steals the Falcon’s hubcaps. Hop back in the choppers, job done.

One special note, however: Make sure to watch the level’s final cutscene all the way through. No, it won’t affect the Challenge; but after putting up with her bad driving all game, you’ll get paid 1,000 cR to watch Kat take it through the head. No skipping!

LINKED UP WITH BUNGIE.NET

Multiplayer

Type: MetaSetting: MultiplayerDifficulty: RetardedReward: 3000

Link your Gamertag with Bungie.Net and play a game in Halo: Reach Matchmaking.

Yeah, you’ll never see this one again.

WEEKLY CHALLENGE

MULTIPLICATIVE

Multiplayer

Multikill

Type: MultikillsSetting: MultiplayerDifficulty: GrindReward: 2000

Earn 45 Multikills in Multiplayer Matchmaking this week.

Okay, relax. This isn’t as hard as it sounds: If you score only seven Multikills per day, you’ll still wrap this up with half a day to spare. Considering that previous Challenges have required you to score seven in a single day, this isn’t much more than a fifth Daily Challenge, with the payout postponed till the end of the week.

Stick with Rumble Pit. More enemies on smaller maps = more Multikills.

Vote for gametypes on small, tight maps that encourage enemies to converge into single flashpoints: King Of The Hill and Oddball, for example. Spam grenades into the hotzone, followed by DMR or Magnum headshots and the occasional coup-de-grace melee rush. Avoid the area yourself, however; no sense adding your corpse to the fiesta.

Juggernaut represents a mixed bag: If you’ve got the Hammer, you’ll have an excellent opportunity to skullcrush your way to multiple Multikills. If you’re not Jugs, you won’t be able to score any. Seek out power weapons like Rockets that can deal massive damage to the Juggernaut from a distance; and even without them, steer clear of close-combat to nickel-and-dime your target from range — if you’re lucky, you’ll score the last shot, and get the Hammer for your efforts.

If you’re not having much luck in the Pit, get with a friend and head into Multiteam; it’s like Rumble Pit With Partners, and your enemies usually travel in pairs, making them choice Double-Kills. Coordinate with your teammate: team-shoot one enemy, then whoever doesn’t score the final shot can melee or plasma-burst the second, setting up a Multikill.

Big Team Battle and Invasion also offer prime Multikill targets: a vehicle with passenger, or a pair of enemies in the unlock zone of an Invasion phase, for example. Your main problem will not be enemies, but allies: with so many players on each side, you’ll have considerable competition to actually score the kills.

NOTE: Unlike some of the Challenges from last month, chaining Multikills together here WILL register multiple points on your Challenge meter. The coding counts Medals, not actual kills; so, while a previous Overkill didn’t register a second Double-Kill Medal — and thus counted as only one point for the DK Challenge — this Challenge registers ANY Multikill Medal. This means a Double-Kill that stacks into a Triple-Kill and eventually an Overkill nets you three Challenge points, not just one.